strawberries and smoke~

~chapter 2~

"What happened last night? I called you ten times," Question sprawls across Camilla's face, getting Fiorella's attention. Wonder and amusement took over and she looked down at her shoe to tie it, not wanting Camilla to catch onto her incriminating look. Niccolo would hold it against her forever, and she'd end up buying him "early birthday gifts" whenever he wanted. It's happened before and she only got out of it because she covered for him sneaking out.

"I crashed. I was exhausted,"

"Doesn't sound very busy," Fiorella remarks with a raised eyebrow. Chiara's shoulders tense and Fiorella almost feels a pang of guilt, but the satisfaction outweighs any empathy she might be feeling in the moment. Chiara agrees that it wasn't in an attempt to brush it off, and luckily Camilla has the same attention span as her brother and the subject is quickly changed.

"Hm, you better pick up tonight though. I have this cute new dress to show you,"

"Speaking of clothes, Fiorella. Your uniform. How do you not get dress coded?" It's a genuine question but a light breathy laugh leaves Fiorella's lips. Growing up with constant fashion tips from her mother, she grew to hate uniforms. They felt restricting. So, she still kept pieces that the school had given her but started to put her own spin on it. Lace tights, shorter skirts, silk shirts, her tie draped around her neck instead of done up nicely, such and such. 

"My dad's a lawyer, I do what I want. My mom's a fashion designer, I wear what I want. To an extent," 

"What's the extent?"

"Well, you wouldn't show up to school naked, would you?"

"Depends on how much money someone is giving me," Camilla shrugs, returning to her locker to finish preparing for school and the other two girls exchange glances from behind her. Chiara accuses her of never being able to do such a thing, and Fiorella can't help but nod in agreement with the other blonde. But money talks, I guess.

"Yeah, I agree. And the craziest thing I've ever done for money was grab the stop sign on the corner of Valeri," When you spend weekends at parties and drinking a little too much for your own good, sometimes you end up doing wild things you wouldn't normally consider. Especially when you have $50 from Brando and a dream. She tells the other girls about that detail and surprise is not an emotion that's evident throughout the room.

"So that's where Niccolo got it,"

"It didn't match my room scheme," She gives Camilla a smug smile and picks up her bag, already knowing someone is going to give her a problem for being even slightly late since Fiorella always hands off the homework answers in their free time before class starts. The three had been separated to different classes this year after a teacher made the mistake in the last one of having them placed all in the same one. You can imagine why they didn't make that mistake again.

~~

"When are we going to the gym Nico?" Brando asks, annoyance coating his tone at the fact that his friend has found something else to occupy his time. Something else having blonde hair and a name starting with C. 

"When Rella stops ditching us," The thrown accusation makes her look up from her nails that she was just complaining needed to be redone, but she soon realized she may as well have been talking to a brick wall. Unless it's a conversation about girls, hair, or soccer, they don't care most of the time.

"I don't need to go anymore. Do you see these abs? I mean hello, rock solid," She lifts her shirt a little and Brando takes a quick hit to her stomach, immediately retracting his hand before she can retaliate.

"Lay off the brownies from lunch," She takes a light kick to his ankle as get back for the hit to her stomach and the following comment. He feigns hurt, putting a hand over his heart to tease her. He spent most of his time doing that, and you'd think by now Fiorella would get used to it, but Brando knows exactly how to get her worked up. She fought with her patience every time he pulled one of his stunts, but it didn't matter because it was rare when they were pulled on her and not with her. But somehow, he knew how to push her buttons just right. That's why they were best friends. From knowing just how to annoy her, to knowing her biggest fears. There wasn't a single secret between them. She hoped.